***'Altered by Design' ATC swap!***

Mosaic of 'Altered by Design' ATCs for a swap I hosted! originally uploaded by creativelenna.

All of the ATCs for our swap due May 23rd have been swapped and SENT out. Hooray!
I try to wrap things up and send everything out to you within one week's time, that is always my goal. I am so glad to have accomplished that again!

The Mosaic I made that you see here is a sampling of the ATCs that were sent in for the swap. I tried to include one from everyone, and as the sponsor of the swap, Carol Murphy has 3 ATCs in this Mosaic! You can test your memory and see if you can remember who created which one . . . or just scroll down through the posts and easily match them up.

A personal note: My husband and I leave on Sunday to visit my parents in Florida for a week! My dad has been ill this winter with heart problems (a pacemaker, etc), a cancerous tumor in his color, an ulcer, arthritis in his back, 2 major infections, and because of this he has been hospitalized or in a rehab facility for THREE months.

My verY GoOd NewS is that my dad came home yesterday!! His infections have cleared up enough so this is possible and we are all so grateful. My dad still has 1 more operation to go through, but that won't happen until later this summer. He needs a break! What a relief and a wonderful treat that he is well enough to be home when we visit . . . thank you, thank you, thank you, to everyone who has been thinking of my dad, to those of you who added him to your prayers, and to all of you who sent me such supportive emails! I can't really even express in words how much this has meant to me!

yours creatively, lenna

Altered by Design ATC swap

Just a note to let you know I am working on this swap! I have done all the physical "swapping" of the pieces - yay! The swapped ATCs are all still sitting on top of the mailing envelopes on the floor and haven't been packaged up yet. I need to add the gift collage sheet and the snippet pack from our generous Carol Murphy, not to mention add the extra ATC Carol made for everyone! But I am getting there and would guess I'll be mailing it out late tomorrow afternoon or early friday morning. It will be worth any wait! The ATCs from this swap are just grand and you are going to love your packages I think. Thanks for your hard work! I will let you know when everything is mailed.

I also have 2 packages for the Brothers' Grimm Swap here that I need to open & scan. I will get to that soon : ) I am trying to wrap everything up before we leave on Sunday to visit my parents for a week. My dad is doing much better last I heard. There are some test results that everyone is waiting for in regard to the infections he was battling and seems to have conquered. Thank you very much for all your thoughts & prayers. I will have access to a computer next week (June 1-8) but obviously I won't be receiving any swap packages -- so any uploading will have to wait till my return!

yours creatively, Lenna

Altered by Design swap's most creative ATCs ~ Shannon Sawyer!

I am pleased to announce that Carol Murphy as sponsor of this swap has chosen a first prize winner for the most creative ATCs in our Altered by Design Angels*Fairies*Divas swap . . . . . . . and the winner is: Shannon Sawyer!! See one of Shannon's incredible ATCs to the right. A big congratulations to Shannon! Carol will be sending you a copy of Bernie Berlin's Artist Trading Card Workshop. This is a wonderful book that I am sure you will enjoy. Carol also wrote an email that she would like me to share with you (below). . . and if everyone takes a peek at the post of your own art, you'll see that Carol also left a comment for everyone. : ) Here's Carol's email:

Hi Lenna- I just wanted you to know how much I appreciate you hosting this swap and just how much I love everyone's ATCs. I never dreamed my little ladies would take on so many personalities and be so versatile! It brought tears to my eyes to view everyone's work- everyone taking so much care and time to make them just gorgeous!

It was such a difficult choice to choose a winner-I can't tell you how difficult- but I did finally settle on one artist - Shannon Sawyer. Your ATCs just blew me away-such attention to detail and they are all just exquisite! Lots of mixed media used and breathtaking color combinations. Also lots of techniques used- best all around and that's how I chose. All of the ladies are winners in my book and I am honored to have had all of them participate in my very first "Altered By Design" swap!

Huge hugs and thanks to everyone- especially to you Lenna for being such a gracious hostess and a wonderfully sweet person -Carol"

Carol Murphy: http://www.alteredbydesign.com/

Joggles Instructor: http://www.joggles.com/

Krafty Lady DT Member: http://www.kraftylady.com/

Altered by Design ATC swap: Lenna Andrews

Yes, I participated in my own swap! : )
The favorite ATC that I made today (and steven's favorite too) is pictured to your left - Click on any photo for more detail. Carol sent me a few collage sheets and I was so enamored by these images that I simply had to try them. The image sheets were new for me and oh, so appealing. I worked with a sheet that looks very similar to Digital Divas 2 and another sheet Carol sent with vintage sheet music cover images. I ended up making 9 ATCs! I am not sure if I will need all of these ATCs for the swap, but I was having fun & so I kept on creating.

I took photos of the process and hope to turn it into a tutorial of sorts, soon! But for now I will simply share a few photos with you. I'll let you know that in making these ATCs . . . first, I copied Carol's collage sheets onto fabric sheets that were already prepared for my printer. I used fabric as a base for my ATCs too and I did a lot of sewing! There is batting atached to the front piece of the ATC and a thin piece of cardstock in the middle for stiffness. The little metal hearts you see attached to a few pieces were a hostess gift from Lisa Mallette who participated in this swap - thank you! The tiny shoes I attached have been in my stash for years (well, they are Divas and they needed shoes!)
~yours creatively, lenna -- p.s. I will be back later with the winner -picked by Carol Murphy, sponsor of the swap, for the most creative ATCs!























Click on the picures for more detail . . . .

Altered by Design ATC swap: Carol Murphy

Carol Murphy is: Altered by Design! Carol is the designer of the collage sheets that we have been using, She sells them through joggles.com and a few other places. I have known Carol through email for some time; we both have taught classes at joggles and we have even taken each others' classes! One day Carol wrote me and asked me if I would like to do a swap using her image sheets. I am so glad I said YES! Carol's images are so varied, from really beautiful to very avant garde. I would not have become so familiar with her collage sheets if I had not hosted this swap. I am even making a set of ATCs for the swap, which I will upload soon . . . . that's how much I like them - I had to use them myself!

Carol is also an extremely generous sponsor. She has created a gift collage sheet for each participant and included a "snippets" pack of random images for each participant. She is awarding whomever she thinks made the most creative ATCs with a copy of the Artist Trading card Workshop by Bernie Berlin as a first prize! Wow.

But that is not all . . . Carol created an ATC for each & every participant! She made 24 beautiful ATCs that I will show you here. Amazing!! Are you ready?? I will shown them to you below and I'll be back later with my own ATCs and the announcement of the winner that Carol chooses. : ^ )

Also -Please look in the side bar of this blog (at the top) as I have installed a new "email notification" service. It is a FREE service and seems very well organized (I even signed up myself!). This will send you an email only when I update the blog with new swap art or perhaps more importantly, new swap calls! You can set the message delivery preferences too -check it out, it's called FeedBlitz!

Here are all of Carol's very creative & beautiful ATCs -one for everyone in the swap!!

Thank YOU, Carol!

Altered by Design ATC swap: Cynthia Vaca May

From Cynthia Vaca-May in Claremont, CA we have flowers, angels, fairies & butterflies!

I love the addition of the dimensional flowers, Cynthia. It looks great and adds texture. Thank you for participating, these ATCs look great!

Altered by Design ATC swap: Denise Morrison

Denise Morrison used to live in CT and when she did, she owned a cool scrapbook/stamp store that I was lucky to teach at, called Kookalicious. Even though Denise moved to Montana, she joined this swap, and I am so happy! Denise is one of my favorite artists. Look at her ATCs and you'll see why!

Thanks so much for participating, Denise!

- - I love Denise's "rules" for Divas!

Altered by Design ATC swap: Fiona Brockie

Fiona Brockie is from Aberdeen, Scotland. Even though she is quite far away, she participates in many of my creative swaps, especially any of them having to do with fabric! This is all very lucky for us!

Look at the beautiful ATCs Fiona has created with Altered by Design images for our swap.

Thank you, Fiona!

Altered by Design ATC swap: Joanie Hoffman

Wow! So many beautiful and varied sets of ATCs for this swap! Right now you are looking at 2 different sets from Joanie Hoffman, who is from North Beach, Maryland. Both sets that Joanie did are created on a fabric base and are nice & sturdy with a good amount of padding. I think Joanie took her images and copied them onto transparencies to give them the ethereal quality that they have . . . just beautiful!






The "red" set as I call them are difficult to capture with a scan because of the rich color and the fact that the images are on a transparency. I tried scanning (the single ATC) and then photographing the group so you could see them better. Click on the photo for more detail.

Really lovely work, Joanie -thanks so much!

Altered by Design ATC swap: Linda Garcia

From Linda Garcia in Albuquerque, NM . . . . I think Linda has participated in almost every swap I have hosted since . . . ? ? ? I am not sure, but a long time! I know she won't mind if I share that she has told me participating in these swaps has really helped her through some tough times. Having the creative projects to focus on and the deadlines to complete them by has been a godsend to her. Hooray!! I am so glad to know this, and know that what I do with creative swaps helps others in a positive way.

On the other hand, many thanks go out to Linda and also to everyone who has been so supportive during my father's illness this past winter and spring. He is doing so much better; he had so many problems to battle! My dad still has at least one more operation ahead of him, but he should be going home soon --perhaps he'll even be home when Steven & I visit my parents June 1-8 . . . wow! I want to say I truly appreciate your positive thoughts & prayers that you have continued to send our way. I do believe they helped my dad (and me) immensely. But I digress!! Please look at all of Linda's wonderful ATCs!!

Altered by Design ATC swap: Michele Daly

From Michele Daly, a beautiful set of ATCs titled "dame de mystere" or woman of mystery . . . very nice! This is Michele's first swap with me and I hope she is able to sign up to do more. Michele hails from Rancho Cucamonga, CA ~ welcome!

Altered by Design ATC swap: Nicole Austin

From Nicole Austin in San Jose, CA we have a lovely set of Altered by Design ATCs with beautiful crayon-like drawings, beads, fibers, starfish, charms & more. Thank you, Nicole! Your ATCs are bright & beautiful.




Click on any picture for more detail!

Altered by Design ATC swap: Shannon Sawyer

Shannon Sawyer, from Gold Canyon, AZ has sent in 2 sets of extraordinary ATCs and extras for Carol and I. Wow! They are amazing. Shannon wrote me a note and told me a bit about how she made them . . . She pulled out some shrink plastic that she had not played with for a while and stamped, cut out and shrunk the beautiful flourishes you see on each card. She hand made flowers out of sheet music, punches & brads and she painted some of the flowers with Twinkling H2Os to match the ATC. They are incredibly detailed! She did a lot of work and it shows! Shannon was recently a Guest Designer for ALpha Stamps and you can see more of her gorgeous work (26 pieces) in the Alpha Stamps Gallery. She used the new Grimm Brothers' fairytale sheets for these pieces and made more amazing things!

In the meantime, feast your eyes on what Shannon has created for our swap, below! Click on any photo or scan for more detail. Enjoy!